I didn’t write this text. I can’t supply pictures or a video because I can’t do this whistle. However, the website this came from is now defunct so I’ve left the text here in case it it useful to someone. If you have any further tips, add them in the comments. If you have pictures or a video, link it up!
Intro: Before you begin
Method 1: Fingered whistle
Method 2: Fingerless whistle
Introduction
Your fingers, washed (if you’re starting a practice session)
A mirror (optional)
Practice 5 minutes a day in the mirror, and you’ll have it in a few weeks (at the most)
Bevel: a sharply angled edge which air flows over and produces a tone. In the case of a whistle, the sound is created by the upper teeth and tongue forcing air on to the lower lip and teeth.
Sweet spot. the bevel’s area of maximum efficiency, where the air is blown directly over the sharpest part of the bevel. Once you locate the sweet spot, your whistle will have a strong, clear tone, as opposed to a breathy, low-volume sound.
Whistling is a funny skill: folks who can whistle, wonder how anyone could have a problem with it. Folks who can’t, wonder how anyone could ever produce such a sound. For those of you who can’t, consider learning–a quick, loud, penetrating whistle has many useful applications and can be mastered with relative ease. (Note: there’s nothing here on whistling Dixie or any other tuneful amusement.)
You’ll be shown two techniques for whistling: one that uses your fingers, and another that doesn’t. Say it’s raining, your arms are full of shopping bags, and you need to flag a taxi. This no-hands whistle will allow you to emerge victorious in this situation and others. But the fingerless whistle is a little trickier to master, so you should practice the fingered whistle first. Just practice a little bit every day; soon pets and taxis alike will be at your beck and call.
Familiarize yourself with the different parts of your mouth, and get a feel for how they work together. It’s mostly a matter of practicing whenever you get the chance: for example, walking a dog, applauding a live performance, or…flagging down a taxi.
If you can’t produce any sort of whistle at present, maybe just loud wheezing sounds, you may want to try the fingered whistle first. Some say it’s easier than the “no-hands” technique; others say they are equally easy (with practice.)
If you’ve set aside time to practice (highly recommended) then wash your hands first. It’s good to be picky about what you put inside your mouth.
Method 1: Fingered Whistle
Tuck away your lips
First, your upper and lower lips must reach over to cover your teeth and be tucked into your mouth. Only the outer edges of your lips are visible, if at all.
Choose your finger combination
The role of fingers is to keep the lips in place over the teeth. Experiment with the following combinations to discover which works best for you, depending on the size of your fingers and mouth. Regardless of your choice of fingers, their placement is the same: each are placed roughly halfway between the corners and center of lips, inserted to the first knuckle. (Again, this will vary depending on the size of your fingers and mouth.)
Your options are:
- a U-shape created with thumb and middle finger, or thumb and index finger, of either hand.
- right and left index fingers.
- right and left middle fingers.
- right and left pinkie fingers.
Now that your fingers are in place, be very clear on these two matters of form:
1.) Your fingernails should be angled inwards, towards the center of the tongue, and not pointed straight in and towards the back of your mouth; and 2.) your fingers should pull the lower lip fairly taut.
Draw back the tongue
Now comes the crucial part of the whistle.
The tongue must be drawn back so that its front tip almost touches the bottom of the mouth a short distance behind the lower gums (about 1/2 inch/1 cm). This action also broadens and flattens the front edge of the tongue, allowing it to cover a wider portion of the lower back teeth.
The sound is produced by air flowing over a bevel, or a sharply angled edge. In this case, the sound is created by the upper teeth and tongue directing air onto the lower lip and teeth.
Blow
Steps 3 and 4 follow each other very closely, if not simultaneously. Inhale deeply, and exhale over the top side of the tongue and lower lip, and out of your mouth. Some extra downward and outward pressure by the fingers onto the lips and teeth may be helpful. Experiment with the position of the fingers, the draw of the tongue, the angle of the jaw, and the strength of your exhalation. Adjusting with these will bring success.
Start off with a fairly gentle blow. You’ll produce a whistle of lower volume at first, but you’ll also have more breath to practice with if you don’t spend it all in the first three seconds. As you blow, adjust your fingers, tongue and jaws to find the bevel’s sweet spot. This is the area of maximum efficiency, where the air is blown directly over the sharpest part of the bevel. Once you locate the sweet spot, your whistle will have a strong, clear tone, as opposed to a breathy, low-volume sound.
Listen for these sounds: as you practice, your mouth will learn to focus the air onto the bevel’s sweet spot with increasing accuracy. You’ll probably hear the following: a breathy, low-volume tone that suddenly, as you adjust your fingers, mouth, or jaw, will switch to a clear, full, high-volume tone. Success! You’re on the right track–your task now is to reproduce the mouth and hand position that led to the better whistle.
Method 2: Fingerless Whistle
The fingerless whistle is a natural outgrowth of the fingered whistle. In the first method, you use your fingers to keep the lip taut and in place. With the next method, you remove your fingers and don’t use them at all (except to cross them for good luck). Instead of using your fingers, you rely on your muscles in your lips, cheeks, and jaw. Since this technique requires greater control of those muscles, it may be easier to master the fingered whistle first, and then move on to the fingerless method.
Draw back lips
Begin by extending the lower jaw slightly, and pulling the corners of your mouth back a bit, towards your ears. Your bottom teeth should not be visible, but it’s fine if your upper teeth are.
Your bottom lip should be quite taut against the lower teeth; if you have need help with this movement, press an index and middle fingertip on either side of the mouth to draw the lip slightly out to the corners. Note: this action is not an insertion of the fingers into the mouth, as the first method indicated. In this instance, you’re simply stretching the lower lip a bit, and the fingertips aren’t in the airstream.
Draw back the tongue
Now comes the crucial part of the whistle.
The tongue must be drawn back so that it sort of floats in the mouth at the level of the lower front teeth. This action also broadens and flattens the front edge of the tongue, yet there’s still a space between the tongue and the lower front teeth.
The sound of the whistle comes from air that is blown over a bevel, or a sharply angled edge. In this case, the sound is created by the upper teeth and tongue forcing air on to the lower lip and teeth.
Blow
Steps 2 and 3 follow each other very closely, if not simultaneously.
Inhale deeply and exhale–the air should flow under your tongue, up through the space between the tongue and teeth, and out of the mouth. Experiment with the position of the fingers, the draw of the tongue, the angle of the jaw, and the strength of your exhalation.
Start off with a fairly gentle blow. You’ll produce a whistle of lower volume, but you’ll also have more breath to practice with if you don’t spend it all in the first three seconds.
Using your upper lip and teeth, direct the air downwards and towards your lower teeth. The focus of the air is crucial for this technique–you should be able to feel the air on the underside of your tongue. And if your hold your finger below your lower lip, you should feel the downward thrust of air when you exhale.
As you blow, adjust your tongue and jaws to find the sweet spot. This is the area of maximum efficiency, where the air is blown directly over the sharpest part of the bevel. This results in a strong, clear tone that’s constant, as opposed to a breathy, lower-volume sound that fades in and out.
Listen for the following: the sound you’ll start with will sound as if you’re letting air out of a tire. Every now and then, the clear and full tone will come through, and you’ll know that it’s only a matter of time before you’re hailing every pet and taxi in your community.
For another take, try this video:
For the fingered whistle, I have to curl the tip of my tongue upwards and then put the point my two fingertips make right at the bottom of the tip of the tongue. Try using your two pinky’s instead of the middle fingers, might help. Make sure the only place air can escape is the gap between your two fingers and no where else. Also, your lips don’t have to be super tight like you’re flexing your muscles, just tight enough to hold it in place when you blow. Oh, one more thing, when I gently blow, it doesn’t make any sound for me. I started getting noise when using a more forceful breath and once you make a nice loud sound, you can fine tune it from there till you get the positions perfect.
I don’t understand the tounge part!!!!! It is weird. All i get is a weezing sound! ARRRRRGGGGGG!
New-B when you say to use our lips to seal around our fingers so air can only be forced out thru the spaces between the fingers you mean i should seal shut my lips so that only a small gap is exposed for the air to escape?
Oh one more thing, where should my fingers be? Under the tip of the tongue almost touching the base of my mouth? touching the tip of my tongue? or nowhere near my tongue?
Whistler wannabe, you only have to curl the tip of your tongue upwards and then put your fingertips right under the tip of your tongue. You don’t have to keep the tongue stiff or anything cause when you blow harder, your tongue and lips will tense automatically. I just meant that you don’t want any air coming out from the sides/corners of your mouth, only from the center between your two fingers. You’ll have to experiment with the size of the gap, how far your fingers are in your mouth, etc…until you get it, which shouldn’t be too long.
New-B, is it normal for me to get a wheezing and airy sort of whistle?
Yep, you just have to keep adjusting your finger/lip/tongue positions slowly until you hear a clear, sharp tone. Try exhaling harder. I don’t get a loud whistle unless I’m blowing with at least some force.
Hmm sorry for asking again but in the video it shows that the finger tip is touching the tip of the tongue, but according to your experience, its placed under the tip of the tongue. Is there a difference or just a personal preference?
That was just the way I was taught to do it. Your tongue is in a normal horizontal position, it’s just the tip of your tongue that’s curled upwards with your fingertips touching. Even though it’s on the bottom of the tip of your tongue, your fingers are basically sticking straight into your mouth, perpendicular to your face.
still CAN”T DO IT but i practice after school everyday!
this really dosent help at all………
thank anyway
garrett lee – it seems your fingers can be where you want them to be
I tried a few times using these techniques. I finally figured it out by trying something a little different. I casually tucked my lips and inserted my fingers (index and thumb) only about a half inch into my mouth, took a deep breath and blew kinda hard. For me, it works whether my fingers are pointed toward each other or just straight in. I wasn’t straining and I was relaxed. I just thought about blowing a broad stream of air through the gap between my fingers.
can sum1 post a video on how to do a fingerless whistle?
I am not getting thisss!!! can someone please help me?!?! btw, April 23 07. =) CAN SOMEONE PLEASE HELP ME?!? lol
Hi guys I can do the hand whistle, as linked below, but I don’t get how to do the whistle in that video….
is their any easy way out????
by the way, the link to the “hand whistle” I was talking about earlier,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJjRw_lLl5s
I can sort of do a breathy fingered whistle… argh *collapses backwards and dies in frustrated agony*
But the non-fingered one’s kind of okay… 😀
I think I”m about to faint!! Help me guys.. tried all the stuff above but I CAN’T DO IT
I’m so frustrated that i can’t whistle. It’s something i’ve always wanted to do. Can somebody please help me
Don’t worry Paul, It took me 7 month’s to crack it. If you would allow me to e-mail you we could arrange a date for me to show you.
…
I’ve tried several more videos and still don’t get how to whistle taxi style… Can Someone help me. I will link several more links on how to whistle…
1) http://youtube.com/watch?v=qMBHzLvYzDs
2)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbZvsXhYfGg&NR=1
3)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p_P2B18k3E&mode=related&search=
4)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOp9_eR8T6w&mode=related&search=
Wow – got it in just a few minutes! Great detail! Note: Appropriate at sporting events, not appropriate at weddings…
Quite Easy to hyperventilate. Can nearly do fingerless
I CANT DO THE FINGER WHISTLE!! I CAN DO THE NON-FINGER 1 NATURALLY THO! BUT I REEELY WANT TO DO THE WHISTLE WITH FINGERS!!! HELP MEEE!
i’ve been able to do it 4 bou a year now, if u want 2 learn- get sumwon who knows how to do it nd they’ll teach u, reading it can b a bit confusing.
This sucks! I can’t whistle! I tried! I may not be doing it correctly, but I’m pretty sure I am! I can’t whistle at all!!!!! I just want to scream AAAARRRRGGGHH!!!
Here’s a video of some guy doing the fingerless whistle.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPwamy57sLo
I have tried for two days and now I can do the 2 finger whistle 🙂
I think the most difficult part for me was to find the right position of the fingers. When I did it like the boy in this video (http://youtube.com/watch?v=qMBHzLvYzDs) it finally worked.
I have a video showing how to do it
And the embedded URL didn’t take. Click on my name above for the video. 2 fingered whistle. So easy even I can do it, and I’m a klutz!
I’ve been able to do the non-finger whistle for as long as I can remember, I was amazed to discover that its difficult for some people, it comes naturally to me, i can whistle just about any tune i want with ease. I cant give any advice tho, cos i never think about what im doing when i do it. But the fingered whistle, i’ve never been able to do. i’d just like to know, is there any advantage the fingered has, soundwise, or do they sound the same? i’d like to learn the fingered, but if it sounds just like the nonfingered im not gonna bother.
I can do it, and my lips are getting tired
If you can do a LOUD non-finger whistle, you rawk. plain and simple.
It’s hilarious, walk into a pub with your mates and order them around like sheep dogs, hehe.
I can do a low whistle, but is it just practice that makes you better????
Fareseru
Go to this website http://www.tapeonline.com/blog/post.aspx?postid=29
I was holding my tongue incorrectly. The technique shown here solved my problem.
I found that it’s a little easier to sort of move my bottom jaw forward, I get a little louder whistle. It’s still really hard for me. I could always whistle without my fingers but I’ve always wanted to learn to do this.
I teached myself the fingered whistle, when I was a kid, but I always wanted to do it without fingers!
Thanks to you, I can do it now, after some days of practice. I’m currently fine tuning it, to get so loud that it hurts in the ears. What I find interesting is, that you need much less ‘air pressure’/breath to get a nice loud tone, with the fingerless whistle, so it seems to be more effective.
For some reason, I can do the fingerless whistle easily, but can’t do the fingered one at all >_>
I STILL CANT DO IT
this is starting to nip my head i cant whistle out the way at all!! >:( and its really bugging me!!! help please?
helpful, thanks
i could do fingerless but i can to fingers!
can you please make a video or put pics or sumething it would be good as.i can do the finger wistle but cant do the fingerless one very loud can anyone tell me how to do it very loud thanks
ugh!!!!!!this is sooooooo frustrating!!!!!!still can’t get it….someone pleaze help!!!!!!!!
hey!i got it!!!!!!!!!!yay me…^_^but i got it without tucking my lips..hhmmm..strange…now to try the fingerless one…this is too adictive man..
i got the finger whistle in 3 days. woohoo! one tip though. keep moving your fingers and your tongue slightly. up, down or whichever way to get the sweetspot. once you hear the sharp sound then you’ll get the rough idea of where to put your tongue and fingers so you’ll produce the sharp sound. i hope it works for you cause it worked for me!
oh yeah i forgot. you have move them slowly. if you move them too fast it won’t turn out. another tip. to produce the higher whistle, fingers on the very tip of your folded tongue and they are quite close to your teeth. a few cm’s. to produce the lower one. fold your tongue a bit more and rest your fingers on it. push them further back. then blow. or you could try widening you fingers and such.
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